surprises
by thewordsofalullaby
Summary: a bunch of one-shots involving the cluster surprising each other.
1. lights l kala

_**lights** : Kala's away from home for Diwali; the cluster decides to celebrate with her in their own way. _

* * *

It all starts when she happens to see the date – 14th October – and she feels a pang in her chest as she realises what this would mean if she was home. Wolfgang is immediately by her side as he picks up on her emotions, his eyes scanning her face with concern. They've been free of BPO for weeks, but he's still on edge, paranoid, unable to completely forget the torture he went through when they took him.

"Wolfgang, hey," she says, moving her arms to cup his jaw, forcing him to look at her, knowing exactly where his thoughts are going. "I'm fine, really."

Wolfgang nods in response, closing his eyes, his body visibly relaxing as he realises that she's not in any danger and that she's – they're – okay. He frowns a little as he slowly understands what she had really been feeling, tensing his jaw. Kala bites her lip, patiently smoothing her fingers over his mouth until he relaxes again.

"You miss it," he notes, his forehead furrowing. "Home."

Kala shrugs, shakes her head, keeping her hands on his face. "A little," she admits, but continues speaking before he has the time to process this properly. "I love it here, I do," she tells him truthfully, gesturing with one hand to the apartment they're currently staying in with Felix in Paris. "But, if I was back home, we'd be preparing for Diwali now. This is the first time I've ever been away for it."

Wolfgang blinks at her, squinting slightly. "It's the festival of lights," she explains slowly, before proceeding to tell him about the history of the festival and the traditions they follow. He's not a believer in the gods and goddesses, but he listens to her anyway, tries to understand simply because she feels so strongly about it.

"Sounds nice," Wolfgang says once she's stopped talking, and she smiles wistfully as she shifts closer to press her face against his neck, wordlessly sharing a memory of her last Diwali with him: the soft glow of lamps in her house, colourful streamers hanging from the ceiling, the sound of firecrackers in the distance. She feels him relax against her, experiencing the memory as if it was his, his eyes falling shut. He looks peaceful – truly peaceful – for the first time in weeks.

"One day," she tells him, running a hand softly along his jaw, and it's more of a promise than a hope. They're free from BPO now, but she still hasn't quite figured out what to tell Rajan and her parents. With Wolfgang here with her though – really here – she feels confident with her choices and she knows what she needs to do. She just has to work out how to do it. "One day we'll go."

He nods, tightens his grip around her waist.

* * *

Five days have passed, and she wakes up to a barrage of swirling lights in front of her eyes. She immediately closes her eyes again, her mind still too fuzzy from sleep to figure out exactly what's going on, rolling over instinctively in the bed to where Wolfgang should be but finding the other side empty.

"Wolfgang," she calls questioningly, both with her voice and in her mind, tugging at him with her thoughts. She feels him then, realises that he's just outside with Felix and allows herself to nestle back into the pillows, her eyes still closed. It takes five seconds before she hears his footsteps approaching, frowning slightly as she senses a peculiar feeling of pride building in her chest; pride that is not hers but is emanating from Wolfgang.

"She's awake," she hears him say, and she notices that they're not alone, slowly opening her eyes again to see Lito's beaming face hovering right over her, blocking everything from view.

"Good morning, sister," Lito says excitedly, pressing a kiss to her cheek as he pulls her up – firmly, but gently – into a sitting position. Kala can't help but smile in return, his enthusiasm infectious. She knows how down he has been feeling in the past few months, having gone straight from the fiasco with Joaquin to running from BPO, and seeing him like this, so carefree and himself, makes her heart expand.

"Good morning," she greets, still smiling, but then frowns slightly as he backs away from her a bit and she sees him exchange a secretive glance with Wolfgang (who, she notes, has clearly been awake for a while, his eyes focused and alert, but has somehow not found the time to pull on a shirt yet. It's not a complaint, just an…observation.) "Okay, what's going on?"

They both turn to her then, matching grins on their faces as they gesture around the room, hands moving almost in sync. She's not sure whether it's the link between them that make their actions so coordinated, or whether it's because they've clearly been planning something together, or maybe a bit of both, but—

"Oh my," she breathes out as she glances around her and it hits her that the lights she had seen before when she first woke up were because at some point during her sleep, the room has been draped with fairy lights. It's not neat – far from it – but Wolfgang's intentions are clear, and it makes her heart beat hard, remembering their conversation from last week. She reaches for him and he moves to stand in front of her, allowing her to press a kiss against his mouth.

"Thank you," she whispers softly, but when she opens her eyes again, they're not in Paris anymore but in Mexico. She blinks, adjusting to the change, and then smiles widely as she notes that Lito's apartment is also draped in fairy lights, but it's much neater and it's much more extravagant. The room is lit up in a rainbow of colours, and whilst Lito's apartment has always felt inviting and warm to her, a reflection of the man himself, she thinks this is on a whole other level.

"This is amazing! I love the colours," she says to Lito, who immediately wraps her up in a hug. Over his shoulder, she spots Hernando and Dani, bemused smiles on their faces as they watch Lito hug the empty air. They understand what is happening though, so they both step forward, hands outstretched. She switches places with Lito momentarily so that she can hug both of them in turn.

"It looks amazing, doesn't it?" Dani asks, unaware that she had said the same thing moments ago. She nods in agreement, still in Lito's body, and repeats her words from before. Dani beams in response, giving her a mock-curtsy.

Kala switches back, slowly raising an eyebrow as she realises just how dark it is outside his window. "Isn't it really late where you are?" She asks him, her mind immediately doing the time-zone calculation. She doesn't think she's ever seen Lito in the mornings whilst she's been in Paris, the man usually making his presence known in the afternoons.

Lito just laughs it off, shrugs, before pulling her into another hug. "Don't worry about me, hermana," he says, pressing one final kiss to her cheek as he adds, "besides, we're not the only ones." She blinks at that, not sure what to make of that cryptic statement, but then her world spins suddenly and she shuts her eyes, focusing on Wolfgang's steady presence at her back to stop herself from becoming too disorientated. Even now, months after they first discovered what they could do – what they were – this visiting and sharing business still takes her aback sometimes; if only because she's still trying to figure out the science behind it all and understand how this is possible. She feels Wolfgang nudge her waist gently, then senses Riley and Will, and she opens her eyes to find herself in Iceland where they're visiting Riley's father.

"What do you think?" Riley asks in that lilting, musical voice of hers as their eyes meet, immediately stepping forward to take her hand. Will smiles at her in greeting, looking pleased, and she allows herself to glance around the room, gasping softly at the warm lamps lit up in every corner and the ribbons in all different shades of blue draped carefully over the piano. She reaches forward to smooth her hand over one of the strands, knowing without asking that Riley must have been in charge of the decorations—

"—Hey, whoa, I helped! It wasn't all Riley," Will interrupts, giving her a defensive look, but he's smiling as he says it. She laughs, allowing the two of them to pull her into a tight hug, smiling as they then move to clap Wolfgang on the back (Will) and squeeze his hand (Riley). She suspects now what her cluster have done for her and she doesn't think her heart has ever felt so full.

Wolfgang just grins at her, looping his arm around her waist again and she leans back against his chest. She realises that she's oddly speechless, for once, not able to express just how thankful she is. "Close your eyes," he tells her moments later, and she does. She opens them again when she feels the heat of the sun on her face and her body, and her mouth has already formed the word 'Capheus' before she has even opened her eyes to look at him properly.

"Kala! You're finally here! And Wolfgang too!" Capheus exclaims as he looks up, his trademark look of boyish enthusiasm shining brightly on his face. He gestures for them to join him on the sofa and they both laugh as they sit, glance at the TV and realise that he's watching Lionheart again. She realises then that there are eight candles placed on the floor in front of the TV, all in a line, one for each of them.

"I tried to find some lamps as well," Capheus says as he follows her gaze, his tone earnest, "but I could only—"

"—It's perfect," Kala cuts him off, smiling and taking his hand. She leans back against the sofa, reaching for Wolfgang's hand as well, and they sit in silence for a few minutes, watching the movie on the screen. The characters in the film have just gotten themselves involved in some fight – at which she winces, as she always does, causing Capheus and Wolfgang to silently exchange amused looks at her expense; she nudges them both firmly in the side at that – when her world shifts again, and she's suddenly in a familiar apartment, her eyes abused with colour and glitter.

"Neets, she's here!"

Nomi gives her a rueful, almost apologetic look as she gestures around her apartment. "Neets went a little bit…overboard," she explains defeatedly, and Kala can't help but laugh out loud as she realises that not only is the whole apartment filled with fairy lights, streamers and glitter, but Nomi herself is also covered. She has a string of fairy lights wrapped around her neck, glitter in her hair.

"It's the festival of lights! There's no such thing as 'overboard'," Amanita retorts, grinning as she reaches them, and she turns to where she thinks Kala is standing, locating her position almost perfectly. "Right, Kala?"

Kala laughs again, nods.

"She agrees with you," Nomi says, passing on the message, and Amanita squeals, reaching past them to grab the glitter bottle, proceeding to start covering the floor with the stuff. "Neets, wait, stop—" Nomi starts, but she doesn't make any physical move to stop her, just watches her affectionately.

"I'm sorry for this," Wolfgang comments, smirking as he observes the scene in front of him, before stepping back hastily as Amanita suddenly starts brandishing the glitter bottle in their direction. Kala grins at his reaction, knowing that even though Wolfgang must know he's not actually there and not really in any danger of being covered in glitter, he's alarmed nevertheless. She notes this overreaction for the future, laughing at Wolfgang's helpless expression once he realises that she's caught on to his emotions.

Nomi's laughing then as well, both of them imaging the sight of Wolfgang – dark, brooding Wolfgang – covered in shiny, colourful glitter, and Amanita stops her waving to glance at her curiously. "What's going on? What are they saying?"

"Wolfgang's afraid of glitter," she answers, grinning wider as Wolfgang steps back again, glaring at both Nomi and Kala defensively as he crosses his arms, trying to be intimidating – but they know he doesn't mean it so it doesn't quite work. Kala reaches for him, steps up on her tiptoes to ruffle his hair, laughing again as he pulls a face, his eyes softening reluctantly at her touch. She's about to start devising a plan with Nomi involving Wolfgang and glitter when—

—She's in Sun's apartment, heat flooding her body again. It's hot, almost unbearably so, but it reminds her of home and she takes some comfort in it. Sun's apartment is suspiciously bare, minimalistic – she hasn't been back in Korea for long (it took longer than they thought to clear her name), but Kala suspects that she prefers it like this anyway – and she raises an eyebrow at the girl in greeting.

Sun just shrugs, before kneeling on the floor, calling out, and Kala grins as her dog rushes in and she realises that Sun has swapped out his usual collar for a light-up one.

"This counts," Sun tells her solemnly, but it's really directed at Wolfgang. Wolfgang laughs lowly from somewhere behind her, nods.

"It does," he replies, his tone just as serious.

Kala glances between the two, before wordlessly asking Sun to switch with her. She lets her, and suddenly she's on the floor in front of the dog, feeling him lap at her face. She smiles, running her hand through his fur, enjoying the softness and warmth, feeling an overwhelming sense of affection for the dog which is not entirely Sun's. She's scratching his back, laughing at the way he rolls over to lean into the touch when she finds herself back in Paris again, Wolfgang kneeling on the mattress in front of her.

"Thank you," she tells him, taking his face in her hands, knowing that whilst she doesn't doubt that every member of the cluster would have wanted to help her with her sudden wave of homesickness last week, this level of coordination must have required some planning. She knows without a doubt that it was Wolfgang's doing. He just smiles at her, eyes intense, leaning ever so slightly into her touch.

They sit like that for a while in peaceful silence before Kala suddenly frowns, raising an eyebrow at him. "How did I not realise this was going on? I thought we were all…connected?"

Wolfgang just shrugs, tightens his grip around her waist. "I wasn't sure whether you had figured it out yet," he says, shrugging again, "but we all agreed to try and keep it a secret."

She considers this for a moment, then beams at him and reaches down to interlace their fingers, pressing her mouth softly against his. She's been fortunate enough to have had lots of people who love her in her life, but she doesn't think anyone has ever done something like this for her.

"There is one last thing," Wolfgang says as they break apart, giving her a cryptic smile as he pulls her out of the bed and out to the lounge, "but I'll let Felix explain."

"Kala, hello!" Felix greets loudly from where he's sprawled on the sofa when he spots them, already nursing a beer in his hand. "Did Wolfgang take all the credit for the lights?"

She blinks.

"Felix—" Wolfgang starts, but trails off as he realises there's no point in trying to stop him from talking.

"He better not have," Felix continues, as if Wolfgang hadn't spoken, taking a sip of his beer. He gives Kala a conspiratorial look, pats the spot on the sofa next to him. "Wolfie's fucking useless at decorating, you know. He almost burnt the shop down once when he was trying to decorate a Christmas tree; it's why I only ever let him paint the window now—"

"—Felix," Wolfgang interrupts again, his cheeks looking suspiciously flushed, reaching out and clapping him on the back; hard enough to make Felix yelp in protest, but it's not without affection. "Stop talking and show her."

Felix blinks, then grins toothily as he realises what Wolfgang is talking about. He reaches behind himself to grab something before brandishing a tube of henna in her face.

"It took us fucking forever to find this," he tells Kala emphatically, "Wolfie and I searched for ages. Doesn't help that both of us are useless at speaking French." Kala smiles in response, gently pulls it from him, her heart feeling almost painfully full.

"Will you show us how to do it?" Felix asks, almost shyly, but then it's gone, replaced with his usual bravado as Kala grins, nods. Wolfgang leans back against the sofa, glancing between Felix and her slyly, and she suddenly finds herself standing in a market somewhere in Paris – but she's not really there, it's his memory – watching Felix wildly gesturing as he tries to both bargain for a lower price for the tube of henna and ask the seller for her number. He's unsuccessful with both.

"Hey, Wolfie, what's going on?" Felix asks, breaking her out of the memory, his eyes narrowing suspiciously at the two of them. Wolfgang just grins, shrugs, a low laugh escaping as Felix catches on, swearing rapidly at him in German. Kala sighs, understanding every word, and puts her hands out to stop them from engaging in a wrestling match around her.

"Stop," she tells them, before moving to perch in front of them, taking Wolfgang's hand in one of hers, the tube of henna in the other. Felix protests at this, but she just shakes her head, laughs, promising to do his hand after. She bites her lip as she starts working, her eyes feeling suspiciously wet as she suddenly feels six other hands in hers, glancing up to see the faces of her cluster, smiling down at her. She misses her family back home, yes, but with all these people around her, she can't possibly feel alone.

* * *

 _Inspired by the photo of the cast celebrating Diwali together!_

 _(I apologise for any inaccuracies.)_


	2. glitter l wolfgang

_**glitter** : the cluster discover that Wolfgang's not a fan of glitter; lots of plotting and mayhem ensue._

* * *

Wolfgang knows she's up to something as soon as he catches her expression, her eyebrows quirked mischievously at him. For some reason though, he can't quite figure out what; he tries to probe, relentlessly pushing at Kala's mind with his, but she just pushes him back, keeping him out. He frowns at her, perplexed, but she simply smiles at him, completely undeterred by his efforts. She lifts her arms to rest on his, gently uncrossing them, tugging until she can grasp his hands in hers.

"So..." Kala starts, still wearing that look that Wolfgang's not entirely sure he can trust. He eyes her suspiciously, itching to cross his arms again in self-defence. "You know when we were in Nomi and Amanita's apartment last week for Diwali? With all the glitter?"

He nods, smiling despite himself as he remembers his plan and how all the pieces of it had fallen so effortlessly in place. He's so caught up in the memory, his mind replaying images of each of the cluster's heartfelt contributions - images of their decorated apartments and warm smiles - that he doesn't realise what Kala is doing until it's too late.

"—What the fuck? Hey, what are you doing?" Wolfgang asks, alarmed as he suddenly sees that she's left his side and is now raiding his weapons bag, hidden in the corner of the room. He stands quickly, walking over to her, a slight note of panic running down his spine. Kala turns to him then, and he realises what she's holding in her hands, dread instantly building in his chest. He absentmindedly thinks that he would have maybe preferred it if she had shown him one of his guns then, rather than this and...

"Kala, no—"

...But it's too late. He blinks, hastily stepping back as he's suddenly attacked by a wave of glitter in his face, his arms frantically waving in front of him in a hopeless attempt to stop any of it from landing on him. She's laughing then, looking immensely proud of herself as she holds the glitter bottle in his direction, and whilst this is really not his idea of fun (his idea of fun involves a lot less glitter and a lot more alcohol), the sound makes his heart lighten a little anyway. He frowns at her as she starts waving the glitter at him again, quickly grabbing her hands in his, stilling them before she can do any more damage.

"I think it's a good look on you," Kala tells him matter-of-factly, ignoring the way he's glowering at her. Her eyes are bright as she looks at him and admires her work, his black leather jacket now decorated with millions of glitter pieces. "I like it."

He frowns harder.

"Okay, what the fuck is happening in here?" Felix exclaims, appearing at the doorway, scanning the scene and giving them both a weird look. Kala laughs in response, and Wolfgang finds himself smirking a little at the look on his face because yes, they probably look ridiculous. He lifts his head to meet Felix's eyes, though it's a bit hard to see anything through all the glitter floating through the air, silently pleading for Felix to save him. Felix doesn't see – or if he does, he doesn't really care – and just continues talking, eyebrows raised suggestively. "Didn't really think this was the sort of thing you were into, Wolfie, but if it is, you should have invited me—"

"—Felix," he interrupts loudly, adjusting his grip on Kala as her cheeks instantly flush at Felix's words, burying her face into his chest in embarrassment. "Fuck off," he tells him, but his lips are quirked into a half-smile, half-smirk as he says it. It's hard to really feel anger – or, even, mild irritation – when Kala's squirming in his grip, trying to press herself closer to him.

He waits until Felix leaves – still shouting profanities and innuendos at the top of his lungs – before he gently lifts her chin so that he can see her eyes. "He didn't mean it," he tells her, though they both know that's not entirely true. Kala smiles, shakes her head, but relaxes against him anyway.

It's then that he feels the others tugging at his thoughts, mentally asking to be allowed in. He eyes Kala suspiciously, squinting at her.

"They know, don't they?" He asks, his voice suddenly a little forlorn as he slowly looks down at himself, his favourite dark jacket absolutely covered in glitter. He's not entirely sure he's going to be able to save it and that thought makes his heart clench a little; this jacket has seen him through many milestones his life - through many fights and many drunken nights - and he can't quite believe that this is what has led to its demise. Kala just laughs at him, almost gleefully, clearly in tune with his thoughts. She runs her fingers persistently across his jaw until he sinks into the feeling, eyes sliding shut and then—

"—Oh wow, this really is priceless."

"Kala, do you have a camera?"

"Amazing."

"I don't think he's ever looked so uncomfortable. Or colourful."

"That jacket…"

"Why didn't we do this sooner?"

Wolfgang groans deeply, immediately wondering if he can block them out, but then he feels Kala press her mouth gently against his. "Breathe," he hears her say teasingly, and he's not sure if it's with her voice or with her mind. "It's just us."

He sighs, taking a deep breath before hesitantly opening his eyes, groaning again as he sees all six of them standing there, desperately trying to stifle their laughter at the scene they have stumbled upon... except, he quickly realises, it's not so much as 'stumbled upon' than—

"You told them to come, didn't you?" Wolfgang asks, his tone just shy of being highly accusatory as he meets Kala's gaze.

Kala grins, shrugs innocently.

"Oh, Wolfgang," Nomi starts, her mouth still twisted into a smile as she pushes her glasses up, shooting him an almost pitying look. "It was more than just that."

He blinks hard, then grits his teeth as the others start sharing memories with him.

* * *

It begins in San Francisco, of course. It's two days after the cluster had carried out Kala's surprise and Nomi and Amanita are (very reluctantly, on Amanita's part) starting to clean up all the glitter strewn over their apartment. Kala appears just as Nomi has turned on the vacuum, and she instantly bends to switch it off again as she senses her arrival.

"Kala, hey," she greets, with a wave. "What's up?"

Kala smiles in response, wordlessly pushing the memory of Wolfgang's overreaction to Amanita's glitter waving at her, and Nomi nods at her unspoken question.

"Definitely," Nomi says. "I would kill to see that." She pauses, rephrases, thinks back to the events of the past few months. "Okay, maybe not kill, but it would be priceless."

Kala visits Will and Riley next, both of them still in Iceland. She smiles softly as she sees Riley in the middle of teaching Will a simple tune on the piano, her head resting on his shoulder. They both turn as they feel her presence, eyes questioning.

"So, I was thinking..." Kala starts, filling them in on what had happened last week at Nomi's apartment and the plan she had been conjuring up in her head ever since. Both of them are grinning at her widely when she finishes talking, Will going as far as to offering her suggestions to where she can hide the glitter once she's bought it ("I'd hide it in his weapon stash," he advises seriously, eyes a little glazed over in thought. "Wolfgang hasn't touched it in weeks. It's the last place he'll think to look.")

"But what if he finds it? Or realises what's going on? I'm not sure I'll be able to keep this from him." She pauses, gesturing aimlessly in the air as she paces back and forth. "I, um, I talk a lot," she says, eventually.

Will and Riley exchange glances, nod at the same time, and then mentally push her towards—

"—Sister! Come and join us!" Lito says as she appears, and she smiles as she realises he's not entirely alone but with Capheus. The two of them are in the middle of a movie marathon, a sizable bucket of popcorn placed in between them. They shift to make room for her on the sofa and she sits tentatively, eyebrow raising as she recognises what's playing on the screen.

"Lionheart? Again?" She asks, her tone a touch disbelieving as she turns to Capheus. "Don't you ever get tired of watching this?"

Capheus shakes his head firmly. "Never," he states, his eyes not leaving the action unfolding on the screen.

Lito's watching the film too, though it's with more of a critical eye. He makes the odd comment about the acting, but it's never anything serious, knowing better than to say anything remotely negative about the film Capheus loves so much.

"Did you have something to ask me?" Lito questions curiously minutes later, seemingly sensing why she came to visit him.

Kala nods in response, shifting in her seat as she fills them in on the plan. By the time she's told them everything, even Capheus has torn his eyes away from the screen to focus on her, his eyes bright.

"If he suspects anything, I'll be there to help," Lito promises solemnly, nudging her shoulder reassuringly, just as Capheus shakes his head at them.

"You won't need to. Wolfgang won't suspect a thing," Capheus says, and it's confident enough that Kala believes him. He pauses then, tilts his head, before asking curiously, "does he really hate glitter that much?"

Kala shrugs, not really knowing the answer to that. She doesn't have time to think it through properly though, suddenly blinking and finding herself in Korea. She takes a moment to adjust to the heat, lifting her head towards the sky so that she can feel the warmth on her face; it's been really cold in Paris the past week and she misses this.

Sun nods at her in greeting once she senses her presence, and Kala glances around to see that she's in the park, practicing her kicks. Kala doesn't interrupt her practice with any spoken words, but mentally sends her the outline of her plan.

"Do you think he'll be mad at me?" Kala asks, once Sun's lips have quirked into a small smile, having received the details of her plans and the possible implications. Out of the seven of them, she thinks - knows - that it's Sun who relates to Wolfgang's past and his actions the most, both of them having been born into unfavourable family situations.

"No," she replies quickly, then tilts her head, reconsiders. "Maybe a little."

Kala frowns.

"He'll get over it," Sun tells her confidently, moving to punch the air a few times. "I don't think he could ever be truly mad at you."

* * *

Wolfgang blinks hard as the images starts blurring, returning to the present day where the seven of them are sitting in front of him, exchanging highly amused looks with each other. They watch him silently, with bated breath, as they wait for him to react and say something; anything. He sighs deeply, shaking his head at them.

"I am mad," he announces eventually, but they just laugh at him, completely unconcerned by this. He sighs again, furrows his brow.

It takes about three seconds before Lito has grabbed the bottle of glitter where it's still sitting in Kala's hand, taking a step towards him and proceeding to tip more of the stuff onto his head.

"Sorry, brother," he says, but it's not really apologetic at all.

Wolfgang groans, wants to curse at them all very badly, but then gets distracted as he notices that most of them have come laden with their own glitter bottles. He purses his lips, eyes widening in despair as mayhem breaks loose: Lito's suddenly attacked by Capheus, who grins gleefully at managing to hit his target (Wolfgang allows himself to feel a little bit vindicated by that). Capheus' smile quickly dims a little though as he's swiftly hit by Will, who, in turn, is hit by an innocent-looking Riley ("Riley!" Will exclaims, shooting her a look of mock-betrayal as sparkly, blue glitter streams down his face, "I thought we were in this together!"). Riley's hit by Nomi, who's hit by Kala ("I'm sorry!"), who's hit very precisely by Sun, and then...

Wolfgang sighs, hastily grabbing a bottle of his own. He tells himself that he might as well join in, seeing as he's here. It has nothing – absolutely nothing – to do with the fact that their collective joy is undeniably infectious and he doesn't think he hates glitter so much anymore. Besides, if they're going to attack him with glitter, it's his right to…defend himself.

Almost an hour passes before they all slump to the floor, catching their breath. "Truce?" Will calls out, his head sandwiched somewhere between Riley's shoulder and Capheus' knee. They all nod, tired but content, every one of them shimmering.

"This was fun," Sun remarks, a rare grin on her face as she stares up at the ceiling, her hair and clothes sparkling. The rest of them murmur their agreement, before slowly disappearing back to their own lives, one by one.

Wolfgang doesn't shift from his position for a moment, eyes closed, forehead furrowed. He's not sure how his life became like this, but he's not exactly upset about it either. He vaguely registers Kala moving towards him and twists slightly to allow her to rest her head against his chest.

"I'm not helping you clean this up," he tells her, eyes still closed, but one eyebrow raised. "This was your idea."

Kala laughs at him, reaches up to wrap her hands around the back of his neck, tugging him closer.

"Yes, you will," she tells him confidently, and he shakes his head in retort. He opens his eyes and moves his head down to catch her lips, but she pulls away before he can. He blinks, tries again and gets the same result. He realises then that she's grinning up at him, almost slyly, and he knows immediately what she's up to.

"Fine," he says, tensing his jaw slightly as he reluctantly surrenders, but relaxes as soon as he hears her giggle, her mouth (finally) pressing against his.

"Don't think that this is over though," he tells her gravely, minutes later, already starting to plot his revenge. She blinks, eyeing him warily, giving him a reproachful look. "You started this."

Somewhere, in the depths of his mind, he thinks he hears the other members of the cluster laughing along with him, already offering up their services. The possibilities, he thinks to himself, are endless.


	3. flip-flops l lito

_**flip-flops:** with a bit of help from Hernando and Dani, the cluster plan a surprise party for Lito to celebrate the premiere of his movie._

* * *

In the end, it's not Wolfgang that initiates the next surprise; in fact, it's not even a member of the cluster. Instead, everyone, minus Lito, receives a text from Hernando and Dani out of the blue asking them to log onto their computers at a certain time on a certain day. They're surprised at first, but quickly agree to do it, simply because Hernando and Dani are Lito's family and thus, by default, they are their family. Capheus is unable to reach a computer with fast enough internet connection to participate in person so he ends up visiting Sun on the day instead, appearing and sitting next to her as they start a video call with Hernando, Dani and the rest of the cluster.

The conversation is hesitant, almost stilted at first, Hernando and Dani slowly greeting each member of the cluster in turn - by this point, they know all about the cluster, but it's still not the easiest thing to get their heads around - but they quickly relax and end up spitting information out at them at a rapid-fire pace, speaking in a garbled mix of English and Spanish that none of them would have had any hope of understanding if it were not for their connection to Lito.

"Lito's big Hollywood movie is premiering next month," they tell them, their voices brimming with unbridled excitement, "and we want to plan something amazing for it. We're thinking of hosting a massive party, with dancing, plenty of tequila, delicious tapas—"

"—Uh, that all sounds great, but what do you want us to do?" Will interrupts politely with a smile, eyebrows raised, unsure of where this conversation is going.

Hernando and Dani exchange glances, grinning at each other.

"We were thinking that after our party, you could maybe hold another one for him with all of you," they say together. "Lito told us how you appeared at his birthday party last year - how you visited each other – and, well, you're his family too and we know that he'd love it."

The members of the cluster glance at each other through their respective screens at the request, squinting at each other's faces, and then remember that there's a little something called visiting that they can do, quickly congregating on the floor of Nomi's apartment without saying another word.

"We're doing this, yes?" Capheus asks, looking around at the others. They all nod as one; they had been thinking about doing something like this themselves anyway, but now that Hernando and Dani have actually asked them to do it, they eagerly start pitching ideas to each other, brainstorming.

(Meanwhile, miles away in Mexico, Hernando and Dani roll their eyes in exasperation as their screen suddenly shows most of the cluster members staring off into space, unresponsive to their questioning, expressions dazed. Nomi's the only one speaking now, having what seems like a very lively conversation with herself, but, of course, they know better and they know exactly what's happening. They exchange glances with each other, rolling their eyes once again, then promptly log off from their computer and leave them to it. It's plain loco, this whole cluster business, but they know Lito is in good hands.)

* * *

This time, the collective plotting process stresses them out immensely, if only because they are well aware of the fact that Hernando and Dani are planning something overly exuberant and extravagant and they're not sure how they're ever going to follow it. They're all congregated in Nomi's apartment again, half of them squished together on the sofa, half of them lounging on the rug on the floor. Hernando had solemnly promised them that he would distract Lito so that he didn't notice what was going on; they didn't question with what at the time, but they can all feel what's going on at the moment and they regret not being more specific about the distraction, all of them squirming in their seats, cheeks flushing.

"We need to, uh, focus," Nomi says, though it comes out more than a little strained, especially as Amanita walks in, giving her a questioning look. "We need to block it out."

"What's going on?"

"We're planning a surprise party for Lito," Nomi tells her, closing her eyes and scrunching her nose as she concentrates on blocking out Lito temporarily. The others do the same, though it's a little reluctant on some of their parts (namely Wolfgang's; he has an arm draped tightly around Kala's shoulders and looks like there are a million other things he would rather be doing right now.)

"A surprise party?" Amanita grins, then squeals, then flops down on the sofa. Sun hastily stands up to make room for her, though none of them are entirely sure if she actually needs to, seeing as she's not actually there. She gingerly sits back down on the edge of the armrest anyway. "Let's do it here!"

Nomi blinks.

"You'll need a venue, right?" Amanita doesn't wait for an answer, just grins widely, her expression going a little dazed as she starts thinking of ideas. Nomi nudges her shoulder patiently, bringing her back to reality. "Please? I miss the glitter," she says wistfully, and Wolfgang and Kala laugh, swiftly followed by the rest of the cluster.

Nomi eventually agrees to this, of course, even if she knows it's most likely (definitely) going to involve days of cleaning up after. "We'll help with that," the others say once they pick up on this, and she smiles, nods. Amanita quickly offers to be in charge of the decorations ("I'll force Bug to help me, don't worry," she says, once Nomi protests that it's a lot of work to do for someone she can't even see most of the time, "besides, I'm going to enjoy this. You know how much I love decorations!" Nomi nods, then sighs, telling her not to go too overboard even though she knows she won't listen. She's not sure she really means it anyway.) It leaves the rest of them in charge of what they're actually going to do at this party, and whilst things should be much easier with one load taken off their plates, it's only marginally so. All seven of them are so different, not only in personality but culturally, and they struggle to agree on anything, from the food and drink to the music:

"You are not turning my apartment into a club," Nomi states, but Riley and Wolfgang are already exchanging sly glances from across the room, and she can hear the thrumming of electronic music starting to thump persistently in her head. "I mean it," she says, eyeing them warningly...but they just grin and the music gets irritatingly louder.

In the end, they all manage to come to a (sort of) compromise: Nomi ends up with a long list of exotic foods to try and source, Riley agrees to make a mix that takes into account everyone's different music tastes, Will and Wolfgang place themselves in charge of drinks (Kala hastily demands some input into this as well, knowing that there will be nothing that isn't beer if it's left up to them), Capheus promises to find some films in case they feel like watching something ("We're not watching Lionheart again," they tell him, laughing as he pulls a face at them and pouts a little) and Sun offers to help anyone if they should need it. Once they've (kind of) sorted out the main items, they move onto other things, like...

"Do you think we should get him a present? To say, I don't know, congrats?"

"Why? It's not like he can actually…take it from us. Right?"

"It's the thought that counts!"

"Is this even an occasion where you get someone a present?"

They pause, all staring at each other blankly. Lito is the only movie star they know (and will probably ever know), and this is not really a topic that any of them have much knowledge of. Nomi reaches for her computer, tries to look up the answer, but comes up empty.

"I guess we could get him one to be safe?"

"What would we even get him? He has everything."

Everyone falls silent again, deep in thought, and then—

"—I have an idea," Wolfgang says abruptly, surprising all of them (even Kala, who twists in his grip, eyebrow raised). He smiles, a little lopsidedly, as he pushes a memory at them: he's in Berlin and Steiner's holding a gun to the side of his head, but for some reason, even though he's moments away from being killed, all he can think of is that he's…lost a flip-flop? He lets the memory continue, remembering the flashes of a despairing Lito lounging in his hot-tub that he couldn't stop himself from seeing whilst he had a barrel of a gun pressed uncomfortably against his head, and then how Lito had appeared to him, switched bodies, and saved his life. It's not the happiest memory he could have chosen, that's for sure; all of the cluster members wince collectively as they vividly feel the cool metal of a gun pressed roughly against their heads and sink into the darkness of his headspace in that moment...but then they feel how grateful Wolfgang was – and still is – for Lito stepping in that day and smile softly in understanding. Kala wordlessly takes his hand as they return back to the present moment, interlaces their fingers together and squeezes them gently, the action swiftly pulling him out of his old life and into his new one.

"Flip-flops," he tells them, and it's more of a statement than a suggestion. The others don't say anything at first, then shrug, then nod in agreement.

* * *

The day after his premiere, Lito wakes up feeling a bit rough, instantly wishing that he hadn't had so many tequila shots the night before, but then he shakes his head at himself, laughing softly as he remembers the day's events. It had been a fantastic day; both Hernando and Dani had accompanied him as his dates to the premiere and not a single reporter had made a comment about it, the film had gone down exceptionally well with the critics (Dani swears she heard his name being passed around favourably) and afterwards, they had taken him to a salsa bar where some of his closest family and friends were waiting and they had danced and drank and then danced some more.

"Hernando, I think he's awake," he vaguely hears someone saying in the distance, but he ignores the voice, burying his head under the covers again, still caught up in the memory of the day before. It's a day that he thinks he'll never forget; a day he never wants to forget.

A few minutes pass before he feels the mattress sink a little, a hand gently resting on the side of his face. "Lito, are you awake?" He hears Hernando call, but he doesn't answer, just sleepily - but firmly - pulls the man towards him, keeping his eyes shut. He feels Hernando chuckle softly, press a kiss against his neck, before turning away from him slightly. "Dani, he's definitely awake. I think you can tell them."

Lito blinks at that, confused, and blearily opens his eyes to see Dani pacing back and forth in the corner of their bedroom, holding a phone up to her ear. He frowns at the sight, desperately trying to understand what's going on, but she's speaking too fast for Lito to catch anything except for "are you ready?" He squints at this, absentmindedly wondering why he's the only one of the three who seems to be feeling the effects from last night (didn't they drink just as much as him?), his mind suddenly working in overdrive.

"You know, I did a movie once with a scene like this," he announces loudly with more than a little bit of flair, eyeing the two of them warily as he gestures around the room. "One day, my character's lover was swapped out for an imposter and she made a plan to kill him whilst he was sleeping. She had an accomplice too, who sort of looked like Dani—"

"Do I look like an imposter to you?" Hernando interrupts, as he pushes his glasses up, eyebrows raised.

"You think I look like María García?" Dani says at the same time, instantly knowing which of his movies he's talking about, shooting him an offended look. "Seriously?"

Lito rubs his eyes, looks at them properly. "I guess not," he admits after a minute to both questions, before tugging Hernando by the arm so that he can see his face better. Hernando smiles softly in response, but then Lito's narrowing his eyes, squinting at him, "but you could be a very good imposter and Dani—"

"—Lito, stop," they both say, quickly shushing him, the tone of their voices making him fall silent. "Okay, I think he's ready," Dani tells whoever is on the other end of the phone, before adding, "he's being a bit dramático this morning though: enjoy!"

He opens his mouth to vehemently protest at that description – he's not being dramatic, he's just being…vigilant; and even if he is being dramatic, what's wrong with that? – but before he gets a chance to express his outrage, Dani hangs up the phone (with a flourish) and joins them on top of the bed. He glances between them both, still not entirely understanding what's going on, frowning slightly as each of them grab one of his hands in theirs.

"Close your eyes," they tell him, now grinning at each other, and Lito finds himself doing it even though he's not really sure whether he should be trusting them right now. He feels the lightest of kisses being pressed to his lips and cheek by Hernando and Dani respectively, hears a soft, murmured "Dani, don't worry, you don't look anything like María García; I think he's just...in a mood", and then feels a strong tug in his mind bringing him straight to San Francisco.

He opens his eyes when he feels the cluster nudge at his mind - all seven of them - and his mouth falls open slightly as he sees them all standing around him, almost in a semi-circle, each holding out an unidentifiable object to him. He rubs his eyes again, adjusting to his surroundings, then blinks, still just as confused.

"Why is your apartment so sparkly?"

He almost doesn't hear Nomi's muttered "blame Neets" as he continues looking around the room, registering the colourful banners hanging from the ceiling, the table on the side laden with an odd mix of beer, chai tea and eight shots of tequila (tequila cubed), the sound of 'What's Up' playing softly in the background and the large stack of DVDs lying at Capheus' feet, a lot of which look very familiar. It hits him then, what this is.

"This, all of this, it's for me?" He asks, beaming at them, even though they all know he can already feel the answer to that question in the back of his head.

Riley steps forward, nods, and gives him a soft smile. He realises then that they're all still holding out objects to him - some of whom are doing it more enthusiastically (Capheus) than others (Sun) - and he raises an eyebrow, narrows his eyes. "We thought we'd get you something," Riley explains, before her voice turns a little hesitant, unsure, glancing around at the rest of the cluster for support, "as a…present?"

He smiles at that, pulls her into a hug, but then backs away, flushing furiously as he realises exactly what she's holding; what they're all holding. It takes him very little time to connect the dots, whipping his head around to the other side of the room where Wolfgang is now leaning against the wall, arms crossed, expression neutral.

"Wolfgang!" Lito shouts, shooting him an over-exaggerated look of betrayal, hands clutching at his heart. Wolfgang just laughs lowly in response, shrugs, looking nonchalant. "I can't believe you told them about that. That was—that was supposed to be a secret! Don't call me next time you need help!" Lito tells him, but they all know he doesn't mean it – or, at least, isn't offended by Wolfgang's actions in the slightest – because he's grinning, walking over to the man in question and clapping him on the back. He then walks around and accepts the offered flip-flops from each of them in turn. "Thank you, thank you," he says, giving them a mock-bow once he's collected them all.

"It could have been worse," Sun remarks, slowly crossing her arms, her voice suspiciously light, "I could have told them to get you a pillow."

The others blink, stare at her. They're not entirely sure what she's talking about, her words meaning little to them, but Lito clearly catches on fast because he suddenly whips her head around to look at her, eyes wide.

"No, no, Sun, wait, don't, por favor—"

Sun smiles wryly, shrugs, closes her eyes and then all eight of them are transported to a dimly lit hotel room, watching Lito throw himself dramatically onto a bed of pillows, dressed in a blue onesie. Nomi notes to herself that whilst she had thought that seeing Wolfgang covered in glitter weeks ago was priceless, this might be even better.

"Isn't this supposed to be my party?" Lito wails, a note of despair entering his voice, his pitch getting higher by the second as the rest of them struggle to stifle their laughter. "This is—this is unfair!"

They shoot him apologetic looks, still laughing, but then Sun is wordlessly pushing another memory into their heads, of moments before when she had found Lito lying in the middle of the street, claiming that he was practicing for his future as a homeless, unemployable failure.

"We're really glad that didn't happen," Kala says softly as the memory fades, reaching forward to take his hands in hers. The rest of the cluster nod in agreement, silently telling him just how proud they are of him for everything that's happened in the past year, before moving towards them and placing their hands on top as well.

"I love you, family," Lito tells them earnestly after a moment, grinning widely again as he looks at all of them; all his brothers and sisters. In his mind, he asks them a question, and all seven of them nod in agreement, move towards the table and take a tequila shot in sync. "Now, my friends, let us party!"


	4. popcorn l capheus

_**popcorn** : hosting movie marathons when Capheus is around involves very high quantities of popcorn being consumed: it becomes a bit of a health issue for the rest of them and they're not sure what to do about it._

* * *

With both Capheus and Lito in the cluster, it doesn't take long before movie nights become a regular occurrence. Lito's apartment becomes the unspoken venue for them, simply because Hernando, Dani and him have already carved out a cosy spot in their lounge to watch (his) movies. Capheus is, by far, the one who enjoys the movie nights the most, always appearing to them with a beam on his face, watching the films in silence, eyes wide, completely enraptured; he'll always love Van Damme movies the most, but he appreciates that there are other great movies out there too. Through spending time with the cluster, he's also introduced to the wonders of Netflix and microwave popcorn and swiftly becomes addicted to both.

"This tastes amazing!" Capheus exclaims gleefully as he takes the popcorn bucket from Lito and starts shovelling masses of it into his mouth. The rest of them stare at him, varying expressions on their faces (Will, for one, looks distinctly impressed at how fast he's eating it, whilst Sun looks a little horrified), but they don't make any move to stop him because of how ecstatic he looks. After the year they've had, they could use a little happiness and Capheus' excitement at something that most of them take for granted is tremendously infectious.

…The only problem is, they're all visiting Lito in his apartment so Capheus isn't really there and isn't the one really eating it. Lito makes it through four sore throats in a row before he cracks.

"Kala," he wails loudly as he appears, his throat unbelievably scratchy. "I don't think I can take this anymore." He blinks, looks around, and then realises that in his despair, he has forgotten about the time difference between them: it's nine in the evening in Mexico, making it about four in the morning in Paris where she is. "Oh no, oh no," he says hurriedly, much quieter this time, as he picks up on the darkness and stillness of the room, just making out the fact that she's half-lying on the bed and half-lying on Wolfgang. By now, they're all very aware of the fact that Wolfgang gets more than a little irritable if he's woken up by an unexpected visitor; he'll usually wake up just enough to check that they're not in any real danger and then tersely ask them to fuck off and come back later. (Kala is – and will probably always be – the only person that isn't subjected to this behaviour; since their first connection, Wolfgang has always welcomed any visit from her, no matter what the time). "I'll come back later, uh, don't wake up."

It's much too late for that, of course; Kala is already stirring, having felt his presence tugging at the edges of her mind even in her sleep.

"—Lito?" She calls out softly, slowly untangling herself from Wolfgang's grip as she sits up in the bed, blearily peering at him through the darkness of the room. Wolfgang, on the other hand, doesn't move a muscle, though Lito suspects – can feel – that he is also awake now, just annoyed enough at being woken up to stubbornly ignore him and pretend like he's still sleeping. "Are you alright?"

He shoots her an apologetic look, before his expression changes to one of despair, gesturing at himself glumly. Kala observes him, takes a moment to probe his mind, then scrunches her nose as she feels the echo of a burning sensation running down her neck.

"You have a sore throat? Again?"

Lito pulls a face at her and nods, even though it's clear that she already knows the answer and he's not really sure she can actually see him properly through the darkness. "It's all the popcorn Capheus eats when he visits," he says, pouting a little as he flops himself down on the bed, almost landing straight on top of Wolfgang. Wolfgang flinches in response, but still insists on ignoring them, his eyes remaining shut. He hasn't told him to leave yet though, so Lito takes this as an indication that he can stay and continues talking. "I don't understand how one person can eat so much of the stuff."

The rest of the cluster, minus Capheus, are suddenly there then, all shooting him sympathetic looks. They've all felt what was happening through their connection – can feel the hoarseness of his voice; the soreness when he swallows – but it feels more like a vivid memory, rather than something they're actually experiencing.

"We should just tell him next time," Wolfgang states dryly, sighing loudly and slowly sitting up, knowing that he can't ignore them for much longer. He makes the point of shooting them all an extremely displeased expression though, intense enough that Lito cowers a bit; he just wants to sleep, thank you very much, not have a full-blown cluster meeting at four o'clock in the morning.

"Are you offering to do it?"

Wolfgang considers it, then shrugs. "If it means that you'll all leave me to sleep in peace, sure," he says.

A beat passes, then...

"No, no, Wolfgang, you can't. We can't do that," Kala says, giving him an almost reproachful look and moving to nudge him in the side. He catches her elbow before she makes contact though, smirking a little, and doesn't let go, smoothing his thumb against her skin. "He'll be upset! You know how much he loves the popcorn—"

"I'm upset," Lito interjects, but if she hears him, it doesn't show as she continues talking over him. He pouts at her in response.

"—There must be another way!"

* * *

At first, Lito experiments with offering a variation of different, healthier snacks at movie night, but Capheus takes one look at them and pulls a face, smile dimming just a bit, and it's enough for Lito to cave and bring out the popcorn again.

"Surely he must suspect something's not quite right by now," Will says, eyebrow raised, wincing at the feeling in his throat as he speaks; it's both sore and not sore at the same time. "I mean, I know he's distracted with the election and all, but if all of us can feel it, he should be able to as well. Right?"

...except if Capheus does feel it, he hasn't connected it to his own popcorn consumption and continues eating it with as much vigour and enthusiasm as always.

"He had three whole boxes yesterday," Lito tells them the day after another movie night, clutching his stomach as he flails around on the floor of Nomi's apartment in a manner that none of them are sure is strictly necessary (they know better by now than to say anything though, just take his dramatics in their stride). "Three. Whole. Boxes!"

In the end, they decide to move the responsibility of hosting movie night from person to person in order to give Lito a break whilst they figure out a better plan, especially since he has a new movie to film and he can't do that if it hurts to talk. (Wolfgang is still adamant that they should just fucking tell him to stop eating so much, but he's outnumbered. He sighs deeply, glowering fiercely at all of them, until Kala takes his hand and gently interlaces their fingers. It's not that he purposefully wants to hurt Capheus' feelings, but this whole situation is plain stupid, in his opinion: how the biggest problems in his life have gone from being kidnapped and tortured by BPO to worrying about Capheus' popcorn eating habits, he'll never quite understand.)

Will and Riley offer selflessly to go first. The cluster arrives to see their apartment warmly lit and a generous – but not excessive – amount of popcorn already prepared on the table. At first, it feels a bit odd to have the movie night in an apartment that is not Lito's, but Will, for one, is pretty (damn) happy that he gets to have full control of the movie choice for once, putting in a cop movie before they can protest and spending the night reminiscing on his Chicago cop days. The aftermath of movie night is a bit easier to handle when it's shared between two of them, but both Riley and Will still feel more than a little rough after consuming so much junk-food in one night. They think to themselves that Capheus' happiness is worth it though.

Next, it's Kala and Wolfgang's turn. Felix gets more than a little overexcited when they explain to him what they're planning ("I fucking love movies," he declares, before exchanging glances with Wolfgang as he adds assertively, "We're watching Conan.") and, as a result, he ends up buying every possible snack he can manage to pronounce in French. As it turns out, his French isn't really that great, and they end up with a lot of popcorn and…baguettes? Kala wakes up the day after, groaning, her throat scratchy, burying her head into the pillow.

"You should have listened to me earlier," Wolfgang remarks from somewhere to her left, smirking and sounding irritatingly smug, and she pulls a face as she remembers the many times he has tried to convince them to just tell Capheus to stop eating the stuff. She notes then that his voice sounds the same as it always does, steady and low, scrunching her nose in thought as she turns to look at him. He grins as he meets her gaze, shrugs at her unspoken question, looking oddly proud of himself. "Felix and I are shit at cooking," he tells her, though she is already very aware of that fact, having observed them both burn pasta multiple times. "We survived solely on fast-food for years; too much popcorn isn't exactly the worse thing I've ever eaten."

She blinks at that, opens her mouth to speak, but then closes it again, wincing hard. ("I'm not sure that's something you should be proud of," she thinks at him instead.) Wolfgang laughs at her, smirking even harder, but drags himself out of the bed anyway and gets her a glass of water, pressing it gently into her hand.

Sun and Nomi agree wordlessly to team up and host next, the cluster flitting between both apartments, watching two different movies simultaneously. Both of them are smart enough to make sure that there is minimal popcorn available and they don't suffer too badly as a result. By this point, Capheus has (finally) registered that they all seem to be getting sore throats extremely often, one after another, but he's distracted enough by the upcoming election and the events going on in his own life that he still hasn't figured out why, even though it's not something they're trying very hard to hide from him anymore. ("What's wrong with all of you? Why are you all getting ill?" He asks them, but none of them – even Wolfgang – have the heart to tell him to his face that, well, it's because of you; instead, they just give him a reassuring smile and try to pry the popcorn away from him as subtly as they can.)

* * *

As it turns out, the solution to their shared predicament is really quite simple, and they're all a bit embarrassed that they didn't think of it sooner. It's not the cheapest solution ("It's fine," Nomi says, shrugging at them nonchalantly as she adjusts her glasses, taps at her keyboard. "I think I've figured out an affordable way to do it.") and it's a bit logistically challenging, but between all seven of them (plus Bug), they figure out a way to make it happen.

"Capheus? Are you there? You have a package," Jela tells him as he appears at the door, a bunch of battered-looking boxes in his arms, "actually, seven packages."

Capheus takes them from him, frowning slightly, but then starts grinning as he realises what's inside. He summons the cluster then, profusely thanking them for the gifts. "This is a great surprise," he tells them earnestly, almost hugging the popcorn packets to his chest. The others just exchange tentative glances, feeling a bit guilty as they see his reaction because they all know it's not so much of a 'surprise', but more of a please stop making us digest so much popcorn on your behalf. Capheus is ecstatic enough at receiving the packages that none of them have the heart to tell him the truth though.

As it happens, it doesn't take him very long to figure it out at all; he wakes up the next morning, his own throat sore this time after having eaten four of the seven packets in a row ("This tastes even better in real life!" He had exclaimed to them, eyes wide in wonderment, and whilst they had all hastily told him that he should probably slow down a little, he hadn't taken any notice.)

"Riley, can I ask you something?" Capheus asks, as he appears to her, his smile a few degrees dimmer than usual. Riley nods, smiles softly, gesturing for him to come and sit next to her. "The sore throats that all of you have been getting, were they…were they because of me? The popcorn?"

Riley bites her lip, and then suddenly the rest of the cluster are there too and Capheus knows the answer. His eyes widen, staring at them in horror. "Why didn't you all just say something?" He asks, gaping at them, looking a little betrayed. "I wouldn't have eaten so much if you had told me that having so much popcorn is bad for you!"

They blink, all of them tilting their heads in sync. Wolfgang's about to open his mouth and tell him that "I told them to", but he's distracted by six of them yelling suddenly in his head, drowning out his thoughts. He frowns at them, glowers a little, but remains silent nevertheless, slowly crossing his arms as he leans back against the wall.

"We just—We didn't want to take it away from you," Kala says eventually, giving him an apologetic smile; she feels bad for keeping secrets from him, but she's not entirely convinced the alternative would have been any better. "You always seemed so happy when you were eating the popcorn."

Capheus considers this in silence, his expression unusually unreadable. He's split between being grateful that they would go through all of this for him, but also a little bit surprised that they didn't just tell him the truth.

"We'll tell you next time, we promise," Riley says, reaching for his hand as she picks up on his thoughts.

Capheus looks at each one of them in turn, relaxing as he realises that they had all had good intentions, even Wolfgang. His trademark smile slowly returns back to his face as he pulls them to his city, his house.

"I think it's time that I hosted movie night," he tells them sincerely, as he gestures for them to sit in his lounge, switches the TV on (which is playing Double Impact) and then brandishes the three remaining bags of popcorn in their faces. They groan collectively, but they're laughing, all of them racing as they try to secure a spot on the sofa. It is, however, the last time that popcorn makes an appearance at movie night and no-one, even Capheus, is really that upset about it.


	5. fireworks l will

_**fireworks** : the cluster plan an Independence Day surprise for Will to take his mind off his father; it's not the easiest thing in the world to surprise Will though._

* * *

Riley's been in Chicago for the past two weeks with Will, but he's been unusually subdued: the fourth of July is coming up - Independence Day - and he can't help but keep thinking back to this time last year when he watched the fireworks with his father on a boat, and how he'll never get to experience that again. Riley picks up on all of this (as do the rest of them), but she doesn't bring it up, knowing that he doesn't want to talk about it; instead, she just allows him to nestle a little closer to her in his sleep and runs her fingers gently through his hair.

"We really need to take his mind off it," Nomi says, appearing to her one evening, a sad smile on her face as she watches Will sleep on Riley's lap. She nods in agreement, bending down to press a chaste kiss on his forehead as she tries to figure out what to do.

She waits until he's gone out to the gym, successfully coaxed out of the apartment by Diego, before she summons the rest of the cluster to the apartment; except when she does, only Nomi, Kala, Sun and Capheus actually appear. The four of them greet her in turn and join her on the rug in the room.

"Where's Wolfgang?" Riley asks Kala questioningly, knowing the two of them are almost inseparable nowadays.

"Swimming," she says, then glances around the room, noting that he's not the only one of the cluster missing. "I think he's with Lito."

They all smile at that. Out of all of the members of the cluster, the person that Wolfgang spends most of his time with now - besides Kala, of course - is Lito, having forged a strong friendship with the man after they helped each other out in their respective lives. It might have seemed odd to outsiders as Wolfgang and Lito act like polar opposites most of the time, but the cluster know that deep down, Lito's just as tenacious as Wolfgang, and Wolfgang's heart is just as big as Lito's. Riley, for one, thinks their relationship is adorable.

As if on cue, both Wolfgang and Lito suddenly appear: hair dripping wet, towels messily wrapped around their waists. Riley can't help but wince a bit as she sees water starting to pool around their feet and onto the wooden floorboards, even though she knows they're not really there and they're not really making a mess.

"Hello!" Lito says, pausing to press a kiss softly against her cheek, whilst Wolfgang just nods silently at her in greeting, moving quickly to stand behind Kala (who, Riley notes affectionately, is blushing fiercely already, her eyes fixed on Wolfgang's bare chest.)

Riley smiles softly at them both, before clearing her throat. "It's getting very close to Independence Day," she says simply as she looks at them all, and it's enough for the cluster to take a shaky intake of breath, remembering the grief that Will went through months ago over his father and the significance of this day to him. "Will's putting on a brave face, but I think—"

"—We should be there for him," Kala finishes.

The rest of them nod in agreement, exchanging glances with each other.

"What do you have in mind?"

Riley grins then, her face lighting up. She beckons them to come closer in a conspiratorial fashion, hand outstretched, and they all lean in.

"If you want this to be a secret, we'll need to be careful," Wolfgang says once she's finished talking, his words taking everyone by surprise. He shrugs at them, nonchalant. "Will's a good cop; he'll figure out what's going on if we plan altogether like this."

They squint at him. Sun nods.

"He's right," she says. "Let's split into groups. Mix it up."

They decide to form a rota, of sorts. Riley is excluded from it because she's actually present with Will in real life; even if she wasn't, she'd be excluded anyway, simply because she's the most connected to Will and it's safer that way. Wolfgang and Sun silently exchange glances, then move over to the desk in the corner of the room, hunching over it as they swiftly lay out the plans of who is going to be with Will at what time. Kala sighs at the sight, walking over to place a hand gently on Wolfgang's bare back in an attempt to get his attention; he doesn't turn around, just leans back against her touch.

"Wolfgang, Sun, do you really think this is necessary?" Kala asks, her eyebrow raised even though neither of them are looking at her. She bites back the urge to roll her eyes as she doesn't get a response, both of them talking rapidly to each other in low whispers. "I mean, this all seems a bit...intense." (She can tell that she's not the only one that feels this, based on the way Lito's now leaning back in his chair, watching them as if he was watching one of his movies.)

Wolfgang twists at her words to face her, shooting her a grin.

"This is important," he tells her, though his tone is a touch teasing, and she flushes as she feels him push a memory into her head of that day she had watched him play football and asked him if he had to do everything so intensely. Just the things that matter.

Kala sighs again, just as Sun nods and agrees. They both look weirdly invigorated as they plan and so, she leaves them to it. She thinks she vaguely hears Sun remark that "evading cops is fun" from behind her, followed by Wolfgang's answering chuckle, but she tries not to think so hard about that and what it means.

* * *

The first shift is taken by Lito and Wolfgang. After about ten minutes of persuasion, they manage to convince Will to leave the apartment and workout with them ("Come on, brother," Lito says, as he pouts at him and pulls at his arm. Will eventually agrees, though Wolfgang suspects it's more because he knows that Lito won't stop asking until he gets his way, rather than because he actually feels like going with them), allowing the rest of the cluster to meet and plot with Riley. They both notice that Will's quieter than usual, but it's not like Wolfgang is much of a talker and Lito, well, Lito can talk enough for all three of them.

"Do you remember what happened last time we were here?" Lito asks as Will walks into the gym, quickly bounding towards the weights in the corner. Wolfgang smirks, Will slowly goes red. Even now, Will's not sure he'll ever be entirely comfortable with the rest of the cluster being able to pick up on his arousal and share it; but hey, it's a small price to pay.

"Will, you're going to be okay," Lito says quietly as Will starts running on the treadmill in Chicago, running down the street in Mexico and swimming laps in a pool in Paris all at the same time.

Wolfgang nods in agreement, placing his hand firmly on Will's shoulder. "You will," he says.

Will doesn't reply, continuing to run, but they think they see the barest of smiles form on his lips.

Kala and Capheus go next. Will's just about to head to the fridge to pull out some leftovers to microwave when he feels himself being pulled to Capheus.

"Sit, sit," Capheus tells him, gesturing towards the empty seat opposite him. Kala's already sitting at the table, absentmindedly doodling on a notepad she's holding in her hand, and she gives him a smile in greeting as he does what Capheus tells him to do. Will blinks and tries to figure out exactly why they're sitting there, when suddenly Capheus turns to them, brandishing a plate of homemade food in one hand, cutlery in the other.

"You have to try this," Capheus says, as he holds out a fork excitedly at Will, dangerously close to stabbing him in the face. "My mother is an excellent cook."

Will takes the fork, but he does so warily; he knows through their connection that Capheus (and Kala, for that matter) likes his food significantly spicier than he does. Capheus' smile is both encouraging and proud though, so he slowly takes a bite. The sensation is odd, at first: the food tastes both spicy and not spicy to him at the same time, and his mind struggles between wanting to shovel more of it into his mouth and take a huge gulp of water. Capheus and Kala squint at him in interest, both of them clearly feeling the war going on in his head, and Kala is already asking probing questions and taking notes about him before he can protest that he's not a test subject ("Describe to me how you're feeling," she says, tapping her pencil on the table thoughtfully. "Be as specific as possible.")

Will's just about to tentatively try another forkful when his own senses outweigh theirs and he immediately snatches the glass of water in front of him, his cheeks going red, mouth burning. Capheus and Kala exchange amused glances, silently pushing their own glasses of water towards him.

"How are you guys breathing right now?" Will asks despairingly as he's halfway through the third glass of water. They both laugh at him, reaching for more of the food.

"What spices are in this again?" Kala asks, eyeing the dish in front of them. She's got her notepad open again and is writing down as many of the ingredients as possible. "This is delicious – I'll have to tell my father to try making this," she says, and Capheus' answering grin is bright enough for Will to (bravely) try another forkful.

After this encounter, Nomi and Sun appear to take Will to a park in San Francisco (for a picnic) and Korea (for meditation), Wolfgang and Sun offer to spar with him, Lito and Capheus hold a movie marathon with him ("How many cop movies do you think we can watch in one afternoon?" They ask, as they herd him towards the sofa, matching smiles on their faces), Nomi and Kala lose him in in-depth, complicated, very one-sided discussions about computers and chemistry respectively, and so on.

* * *

It's not long before Will has a sneaking suspicion that something is going on. The frequency of visitors he's been getting in the past few weeks is unusually high and, assuming he's done the time-zone calculation correctly, sometimes he gets visits from someone when they should really be fast asleep; in the end, he chalks all this odd behaviour up to the cluster picking up on his emotions and trying to distract him from them. He's overwhelmingly grateful that they're willing to do this for him, and he finds that their efforts do help, if only for a few hours. Because of this, he lets them drag him to the gym, to the park, and lets them feed him exotic food and talk to him about things he's not sure he'll ever understand. The days leading up to Independence Day pass by smoother and quicker than they would have if he was left alone to his own thoughts, and before he knows it, he's waking up on the fourth of July to the soothing feeling of Riley's fingers combing through his hair:

"Morning," he says, offering her a smile as he opens his eyes. Riley smiles back, leaning over to press a kiss on his mouth. He catches her hand in his, stopping her from pulling away and she nestles against his side. He closes his eyes again, listening to the sound of their breathing. He'll always miss his father and he'll always have certain regrets, but enough time has passed now that he's starting to be able to look back and remember the good times that they shared without feeling overwhelming grief and pain wracking his mind.

"I know that you've been thinking about your dad lately," Riley whispers after a few minutes, so softly that at first, he's not sure if he really heard her. She runs her hands gently along his jaw until she's clasping his face firmly with both of her hands, forcing him to meet her gaze. "I know I can't say anything to take away the pain, but just know I'm here for you – we all are."

Will nods, smiles.

"Thank you," he says sincerely, as he tugs Riley just that little bit closer.

A few more minutes pass before Riley's lifted her head to look at him properly, strands of her hair just brushing against his forehead. She's looking at him with an expression in her eyes that he can't quite decipher, even though he's supposedly in her head. It's a little bit unnerving to see at first, but then he remembers that it's Riley; he knows that no matter what, she's got his best intentions in mind.

"I thought that tonight we could maybe watch the fireworks," she says, though her voice is gentle and patient, giving him the opportunity to refuse if he wants. Will stiffens for a split-second, but then he relaxes in her embrace and she presses a kiss to his forehead.

"Yeah, that would be nice," he tells her, then lifts his head to kiss her properly.

* * *

That evening, Will finds himself on a boat, getting ready to watch the fireworks, a bottle of beer in his hand; this time though, he's not with his dad, but with Riley and six other people. He turns to them, just as the first burst of red sparkling lights explode in the night sky, breaking the silence that had momentarily fallen.

"Thank you," he tells them sincerely, slowly looking at each one of their faces in turn. "Thank you for distracting me these past few weeks. It means a lot."

They smile in response and Will's just about to turn back to watching the fireworks, when he suddenly catches them exchanging mischievous glances. Before he knows what's happening, they've started to count to three altogether, voices loud and full of energy. He blinks in confusion just as they've all yelled out "...three!" and then his mouth falls open in surprise as his head is suddenly tugged in five different directions all at once.

One second he's in Chicago with Riley, watching the fireworks from a boat, and the next he's on a rooftop somewhere in Paris. Wolfgang and Kala shoot him matching smiles as he turns to them, perplexed, his mouth still half-open.

"Felix, you can light them!" They shout, and Felix grins at them widely from metres away, lighting a bunch of fireworks balancing precariously on the tiles. ("This is fucking awesome!" Felix exclaims as they go off and he sprints back to them.)

He's just turned his head to look up into the air when he realises he's staring at a much bluer, warmer sky than he expected. He's in Mexico with Lito, Hernando and Dani, Lito's arms pulling him into a hug before he has a chance to react. Over his shoulder, Will spots Hernando, leaning down with a lighter in one hand. The fireworks go off in the sky with a bang, and then—

Will's in the park in San Francisco. He turns to see Nomi, Amanita and Bug, standing almost out of view, hidden amongst the shadows of the trees. Will walks towards them, eyebrow raised.

"We're pretty sure this isn't entirely legal," they explain matter-of-factly, as Bug starts singing Born Free and they light up their fireworks.

He's a bit fuzzy with the laws of California, but he's about to tell them that it's probably not legal, when he's suddenly in another park, but in Korea. It's almost noon and it's stiflingly hot, and he blinks to see a sparkler being pushed into his hand by Sun. He takes it, allows himself to draw a few shapes, fondly remembering a time when he used to do this with his dad, and then—

"Will!"

He turns to see Capheus, standing on the roof of Silas Kabaka's place with Amondi. Capheus grins at him, then quickly moves to light his own heap of fireworks, his grin getting wider as Amondi cheers.

When he returns back to Chicago, he immediately twists to catch Riley's gaze. "How did you— What was— I mean, that was—" She's grinning at him as he stumbles for words, reaching for his hand. In the end, he settles for a, "have I ever told you how much I love you?"

She laughs, presses a kiss to his lips. "We're here for you, Will," she tells him softly as they break apart. "Always."

* * *

 _ **A/N: let me know what you think! :)**_


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